If you are like me, and you have suffered from a lazy bowel (aka constipation) all your life, then you are familiar with the dozens of different constipation remedies you try to keep all that miserable straining and bloating at bay. You too know what it feels like to be so congested, that if someone put a match near you, you would light up the night sky.

Recently I had a colonoscopy. Before hand, I thought I had something seriously wrong. My left side, under my breast and deep down toward my stomach felt like some nasty person was not very delicately pushing a red hot knife in and then wiggling it around, just for fun.

It persisted for four weeks. Admittedly, I was terribly stressed at the time. But the ongoing pain really caused further stress. And to boot, my usual remedies to manage my chronic constipation just stopped working. Period.

It is not an attractive look, a 58 year old who looks like she is about to give birth. Nothing fitted me, the pain wore me down and I felt utterly miserable.

I was lucky. When the doctor appeared at my bedside through the haze of the anaesthetic, rather than announcing that things looked dire, he told me I was perfectly well.

He suggested I see him in a month and gave me a white envelope to give to my GP. Of course I opened it. Who wouldn’t? It said I had a largely redundant bowel that showed damage from overuse of laxatives. Whaaat? A largely redundant bowel. What does that mean? Well I knew, didn’t I. It meant it just didn’t work anymore. Should not have been at all surprised. But I was, and quite distressed as well.

The laxatives were CasCara. I had been using these so called natural, herbal tablets for 8 years. Not every day, just when things got truly out of hand. As well as trying to manage what I ate.

This was rather daunting news. I could no longer use CasCara, so what now. There really is a limit to the fruit, vegetable and fibre you can intake.

A friend rang. She said try two teaspoons of Oat bran with yogurt every morning. I can never resist tweaking any recipe I am given. I decided to add to this 1 teaspoon of LSA (that is crushed linseed seeds, sesame seeds and almonds), available in most supermarkets and two teaspoons of Benefiber. I like Benefiber, odourless, tasteless and with no pysllium in it, which bloats me.

It worked. Joy all round. As my my husband said, it is no good unless you eat it every day of your life with out fail.

Well it is relatively painless, so I think it warrants a Pain Free Eating label. Give it a try.

Hi Sarah, I have just come back to this site after a while away. Sesame is the version I use, but have also used sunflower. To be honest, it is likely sunflower is the original version. You could try both. Let me know what you like about either.

I was told my colon is the culprit, it doesn’t release the bowel contents. Tried Glycerin suppos. , no result. It seems like this is going to be my life, eating but not eliminating. For months. What to do?

Hi Sue, we are learning that constipation can be as a result of an imbalance of bacteria in the gut and also gut motility and the gut brain connection. It is all very complex, but I had great success for some months eliminating gluten and sugar completely. Now after some months, constipation is back, so I am experimenting with more greens. I think it is a fine balancing act and I hope that the recipes I share here will help. My daughter who suffers from SIBO knows more than me and is teaching me, so I will share as I learn. I hope we can help each other.

Thanks for your personal testimony. It is the first time I’ve heard of a “redundant bowel.”

Mom is 90 and has been suffering from constipation for about 8 months now. Aside form taking prunes and prune juices, which use to work, she has tried a host of prescription laxatives, which had been initially effective, if at all. Even her oncologist has given up on making recommendations. Will try your recipe.

Hi Mike, sorry for the two year delay in replying 🙁 I stopped posting and then had to delete over 800 spam comments when I came back to the site. Since we started this site we have learned so much more about how the bowel works and why it can be redundant. It is so much todo with the bacterial balance. I will be writing a lot more about this as we learn more. But you might be interested to read the short article I wrote on SIBOReply